Dinomorphs Two: Song of Songs
by Gryphinwyrm7
Summary: Emily is having lots of problems lately. Problems expressing herself. Problems with dinosaurs. Problems with sapient viruses that want to take over the universe. Lot's of problems. Maybe what she needs...Is a little music.
1. Wolf--Mostly

Chapter One

My name is Emiline Wu. My friends call me Emily. Or Emmy. Or Em. I'm not really picky.

My name is Emiline Wu…And I have a very serious problem with saying 'no' to my best friend.

His name is Jason Grant. He's been my best friend since we were seven. My dad's a pastor, and his family goes to our church. It was a church picnic, and Jason was pretending to be a dinosaur. He tried to 'attack' me. I backhanded him and broke his nose.

The next day he came up to me. He didn't apologize. He just said "I'm gonna be your best friend now."

And frankly…He was. Best friend I ever had. Better at keeping secrets than any of my girlfriends. Better listener, better friend than I'd ever had before. Which is exactly why my faith in God is pretty much unshakable. The night before, I had prayed to Him for a best friend. The next day at the picnic, and met Jason.

We were pretty much inseparable after that. I would hang out at his house. He would hang out at mine. He helped me get over Josh Levine when the jerk broke my heart in junior high. He stuck by me all through high school, when I took a love 'em and leave 'em approached to dating.

And then, a little over a month ago, we met an Andalite. A crazy eccentric Andalite. Not like those normal Andalites you meet. More like…If Santa Claus was an Andalite.

He gave us morphing powers. And my life turned upsidedown. Before I understood what was happening, I learned that the peaceful part of the galaxy was now under attack from a sapient virus that wanted to absorb all life into it, and that Jason's next door neighbor was really an alien robot dog.

Yeah…Still trying to comprehend that part. She told us that her alien builders had build a medical facility on an out-of-the-way planet that had a cure for anything.

And she offered to take us there.

I wasn't keen. No sir. MY hopes and dreams had been dashed when Jason had met Escafil though. Because nothing would be the same. We could morph now. We could become any animal we could touch…But it wasn't enough for Jason.

Jason had always wanted an adventure. Something AMAZING that he could do. And now, Erica, the alien robot dog, had just offered him the adventure of a lifetime.

Me, I wanted to stay home. Graduate high school. Become a private investigator (I felt certain my newfound morphing abilities would make me a damn good one, too.) But Jason had a chance to Adventure. And I couldn't take that from him. So I went with him on his insane plan to go to the Pemalite research facility.

We dragged along with us, Menderash, an Andalite _nothlit_ in human morph, and Melissa. A professional morph-hunter (like those guys you see on the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet, who go around the world and acquire rare animals to morph?)

But when we got there, we found the planet hat been terraformed. Terraformed, and filled with Dinosaurs. Yeah. Freaking dinosaurs.

Remember how I told you how I met Jason? Yeah…This was his idea of paradise. A planet full of dinosaurs, just WAITING for him to morph. I was so unbelievably screwed. How does one compete with that?

Because…The reason I'm stuck on Jurassic Planet with Jason, Mederash, Erica, and Melissa…The reason I cannot say no to Jason…Is because I am so, desperately, deeply, head-over-heels in love with him.

Thinking back on it, it was inevitable. After Josh broke my heart, I was determined, DETERMINED, to find the perfect guy. So I dated. I dated a lot. But none of the guys I went out with were right. There was always something about them that I just didn't like. Something that wasn't…Well…Wasn't _Jason_ enough about them.

It slowly began to dawn on me, as I dated, and dated, and dated…That I wasn't just looking for a guy. I was looking for a guy like Jason. A guy exactly like my best friend. Maybe I was just too dense to see it at first. But…What I wanted, _was _Jason. I was in love with him. Don't know when it started, don't know how. But it happened.

After having a long, LOOOONG conversation with Jason's next door neighbor (BEFORE I found out she was a robot dog) I had determined to tell Jason how I felt. Even if he rejected me, or laughed in my face, at least he would _know. _

We were going to meet at my favorite bookstore. I figured if I was surrounded by my favorite thing, then maybe it wouldn't be so _hard. _Then that damned Yeerk assassin tried to kill Escafil's daughter, Jason saved her life, and that's how we met SantAndalite.

Since then, my life has been a series of frustrations. I still can't tell him how I feel. Oh, and we're fighting an alien disease that eats souls. By turning into dinosaurs.

Yep. I don't envy me. Do you envy me?

Anyway, I wasn't a dinosaur right now…I was a wolf. I had acquired the wolf back on earth, before we had left for Jurassic Planet. It was a good morph. Good in the forest. Good sense of smell. Good night vision.

It was also freaking terrifying. Wolves are wolves, and a wolf can take on a lot of things…On earth. But here, on Jurassic Planet…I was sure I was dinosaur chow.

But it was the dead of night, and we needed a nocturnal morph that could track the Kelbrid survivor. His ship had crashed, and he had wandered off from the ship. My wolf morph was the only thing we had that could possibly fit the bill.

There was only one problem.

(I can't smell him,) I snarled in frustration. (It's like he has no scent!)

(Are you sure you're just not recognizing the scent?) Jason asked helpfully.

(Jason, aliens still have scents,) I said. (I was expecting a scent that the wolf mind wouldn't recognize…The only problem with that is that I AM ON A FREAKING DINOSAUR PLANET AND THE WOLF MIND DOESN'T RECOGNIZE ANY SCENTS!)

(Okay, okay,) Jason said. (Sorry.)

(Why don't you do your T-rex morph?) I asked. (You said it has a really good sense of smell.)

(Second best in the fossil record, actually,) Jason said. (But…It's also diurnal. It can't see all that well at night. I know, I've tried.)

(Well you can at least identify the Kelbrid scent,) I said. (Because I have sniffed this whole ship and I can't friggin' find it.)

(Okay,) Jason conceded. He folded his wings, and landed next to me. His Quetzalcoatlus was a huge flying creature. Like a giraffe with a beak and wings.

It began to shrink. His wings collapsing in on themselves. His beak began to shrink and sucked into his mouth. The folds of his wings shrank into his sides, the elongated finger suddenly split in half, transforming into his pinky and ring fingers.

I watched him demorph to human. Did I mention that Jason is cute? Like…Really cute. He's skinny, but not too skinny. Well built. He has brown hair and these blue eyes that change color depending on what he's wearing. As he was wearing a white t-shirt and jean-shorts, his eyes were strikingly blue, from the blue shorts.

I've never told him that I thought he was cute, even though I noticed it before I realized I was in love with him. I didn't want it to go to his head. I knew a lot of girls at school were interested in him. He had taken a girl named Angela to Junior Prom, but that was the extent of it. Jason didn't really do a lot of dating. Some girls wondered if he was gay, but I'd seen him check out hot girls at the mall enough times to know that he wasn't. He just wasn't into the dating scene.

He began to triple in size, as he took on his Tyrannosaurus morph. I backed away towards a bush. There was a rustle of leaves behind me.

Jason morphed quickly, and began sniffing the cockpit of the downed manta-ship.

(Hey,) he said. (I can't smell the pilot.)

(HA!) I said. (I told you! I told you there was no sc—)

My moment of triumph was rudely interrupted by a rattling hissing sound, and something sharp biting my forepaw.

(Ouch!) I said. I snapped at the bush. Lunging with all my wolfish senses, I clamped down on something furry. That something immediately began squirming and hissing and fighting me.

(Jason!) I yelled. (This thing bit me!)

Jason politely stepped forward and gently put his foot down on "my prey". Only then did I get a decent look at it.

It was furry. A furry dinosaur. Well, Jason called them feathers, but they didn't look feathery to me. They looked like fur. This one had pale gray fur all along it's back, and bright red fur along it's chest. It had a long neck and two glowing orbs for eyes. The feet reminded me of my Deinonychus morph's feet, though the claw was smaller.

It's mouth was full of razor sharp teeth.

(What is it?) I asked.

(Troodon, I think,) Jason said. (Related to the Deinonychus. These guys were suspected to be scavengers, like jackals or Tasmanian devils.)

He paused.

(Emily, I think you should demorph,) he said. (Tasmanian Devils have so many diseases in their mouths that their bite can kill a man, or at least put them in the hospital. If this guy bit you…He might have been trying to infect you with a disease. Diseased animals are easier to kill. You might look like easy dinner.)

Jason was right…My head was starting to get woozy. I began to demorph.

(It's funny,) I said. (I don't think we've even SEEN a sick dinosaur since we arrived on Jurassic Planet. Everyone is so robust and…And…)

Suddenly…Overcome with fatigue, and still less than half-morphed…I collapsed.


	2. Troodon

Chapter Two

"Emily!"

"EMILY!"

My eyes flickered open.

(I…I can't move!) I said, panicking.

(I think that the toxin is a paralytic,) Menderash said. (You should be able to purge it by completing the morph though…)

"Please be okay," Jason said, worry lines all over his face. "Please be okay…"

He's cute when he worries.

I focused my mind, picturing my human self in my head. My fur began to shrink, vanishing into my body. My hair began to extend out of my head. My snout began to vanish in front of me, retreating into my face.

And sensation began to return to my body. It kinda felt like when you go to the dentist, and you get a filling…When the Novocain starts to wear off a few hours later.

I wiggled my fingers as they formed from my wolf paws. And then my toes. I felt my tail retract into my body.

I groaned and sat up. My body was still slightly numb, which I attributed to the partial demorph I had done before the toxin had set in. There were still trace amounts in my system. But for the moment, I was in better shape than before.

"Oh thank God," Jason said, grabbing me and hugging me tight. My heart did backflips in my chest.

"Where is the troodon?" I asked, frowning.

"Oh," Jason said, rather sheepishly. "Well, when you collapsed I sort of…Stepped on it."

I glanced over to where Jason has been standing before…The troodon was lying in the impression of a Tyrannosaur footprint. It moaned rather pathetically.

"You were supposed to just be holding it down," I said. "Poor thing."

"Poor thing?!" Jason asked incredulously. "It almost killed you just now."

I shrugged. "It was just doing its thing. An animal can't help being what it is."

"But we can," Menderash pointed out. "We need a nocturnal morph, and that creature is still alive. But it won't be for much longer. We should acquire its DNA while we still can."

Jason took a deep breath. "Yeah," he said. "Guess so."

The three of us quietly approached the dinosaur. It looked up at us almost pathetically, letting out a sort of moan in pain.

It didn't seem all that threatening now. It's tail and legs were clearly broken, having been more or less smashed in when Jason as a T-rex had shifted his weight.

I bent down and placed my hand on the smashed legs. Jason placed his on it's chest, and Menderash touched its tail. It became calm and quiet as it was hit with a triple dose of the acquisition trance.

"Hey how come we can only acquire from living animals?" I asked. "Dead things have DNA too."

"Safety protocols in the morphing process," Menderash said. "Acquiring picks up DNA, primarily, but it also scans other things, more subtle things. Things it would require to maintain the morph, such as beneficial bacteria and the like. Most animals have certain bacteria in their digestive tracts that help with the process. Morphing would be fairly useless if those things were not taken into account. You could end up with a set of failing organs if the microbes are not in place."

"Oh," I said.

"If you acquired from a dead animal," Menderash said. "The process might end up confusing a beneficial bacterium, with one designed to break down organic matter. Which could be devastating. In addition to which, entropy sets in, so the DNA itself could be compromised, or at least could be in the process of breaking down, which could be damaging to the morph."

"Basically," Jason said. "It was safer to acquire from living animals, so Escafil made it impossible to acquire from dead ones."

"Pretty much," Menderash said. "He is a rather brilliant scientist, after all. He couldn't take everything into account, but he did take much into account."

Menderash seemed to be dating Estreen, Escafil's daughter, before he went all human-_nothlit_. Or, whatever the Andalite version of dating is. He has a huge amount of admiration for the guy. Some of it is pretty justified. Escafil is a lot like your crazy awesome uncle, who does all sorts of zany things, but there is no doubt when you meet him, that he is a bonified genius. He gets human concepts far more easily than your typical Andalite does. Which alone is amazing. I think that he may be the one Andalite you wouldn't be able to spot in a human morph.

"Um…," Jason said. "Guys?"

We looked up, and saw dozens of glowing orbs in the jungle. Eyes, staring out at us.

(More Troodons?) Menderash wondered.

"I think so," Jason whispered. "And I think that they think we're lunch."

"We have the DNA," I said calmly. "Let's morph. They won't attack their own kind, right?"

Jason said nothing.

"Right?"

"Probably not," he said. "Coelophysis was the only confirmed cannibalistic dinosaur…But…There's a lot of unknown factors when it comes to the fossil record."

"I hate you," I lied to Jason.

I focused my mind on the dinosaur. Grey fur sprouted all over my back, and red fur all over my chest. It was hollow and light. Not really fur…_protofeathers_, Jason had called them. I frankly didn't see the difference. If it looks like your dinosaur is furry, then it should be called fur, not feathers. Feathers don't look like fur.

My fingers and toes began melting together, and my spine shot out into a thick tail. My torso began to shrink. I'm already a fairly skinny girl, but now it was getting to ridiculous proportions. My neck began to stretch, and elongate, and my teeth began to sharpen and shrink. Each smaller than a dime, but razor sharp. My mouth began to fill with a toxic cocktail that I really didn't like the taste of. My tongue morphed a few seconds later, but it was too late, the toxins in my mouth had left a very nasty aftertaste that I couldn't shake.

My face bulged out into the troodon snout, and my weight shifted forward. My sense of smell came online, and my hearing improved slightly. But troodon did not hunt by scent or hearing.

He hunted by sight. The dark jungle was suddenly flooded with light. It was high noon, as far as the troodon was concerned. The mind bubbling up underneath my own consciousness had really only one concern.

_Food._ And everything was food. Eggs. Insects. Plants. Anything that the troodon could get it's three-clawed hands on was food. It was more like a raccoon than a jackal. It was omnivorous and it wanted to eat everything. All it had to do, was bite something that wandered to close. And from then on, it was a waiting game. The toxins in my mouth would paralyze the creature, and then I could eat it!

Dead meat was good too though. The troodon was just as eager to eat the corpse of a dead dinosaur as it was to hunt a living creature. This guy was an opportunistic little critter. It ate everything, and it was not picky at all.

It was intelligent too. Very intelligent. It saw two other troodons nearby, and sensed even more in the forest. But it wasn't territorial, or seeking dominance, like other dinosaurs, such as the Deinonychus morph that I had done before. The troodon was like _ah cool. More of me. That's great, there's plenty of food for everyone, and together, we can get even more food. FOOD! _

(Dang,) Jason said, snapping me out of my funk. (One-Track minds, ain't they?)

(Highly intelligent, though,) Menderash said.

(Yeah,) Jason said. (Troodon's have big brains compared to the size of their bodies. Some people thought that they might have eventually become the dominant species on earth, if the K-T extinction event had not happened.)

(Believable,) Menderash said. (It's hard to recognize sentience in a morph, because sentience is not instinct, and your own mind fills in the gaps left by the DNA…But this animal is definitely intelligent enough to have potential. In a few million years, who knows?)

Without thinking, I snapped at a large dragonfly that was buzzing past. I gobbled it up and swallowed it without thinking, before I'd realized what I'd done.

(Ewwwww,) I said.

(They are hungry little critters, aren't they?) Jason commented again.

(Let's just…Find the Kelbrid, okay?) I said. (We have a morph that can work in the dark now.)

(Sense of smell isn't that great,) Jason said sniffing.

(And Kelbrids don't smell, anyway,) I said.

(Despite how little sense that makes,) Jason said. (I am inclined to agree. Even the big Rex couldn't smell it. When you eliminate the impossible…)

Jason winked at me…Which was weird because he was a troodon.

(Then whatever remains, no matter how improbable,) I said, grinning inwardly. (Must be the truth. Sherlock Holmes.)

I love Sherlock Holmes. Heck, I love a good mystery, period. But Holmes and Poirot are my heroes. Jason was pandering to me, but I didn't care because I loved it.

(But there are tracks in the dirt,) I said, bending down and observing the large, two-toed tracks.

(So,) Jason said. (Assuming that we can follow these tracks…)

(Come Watson,) I said. (The game is a foot.)

(Then we should be able to find our Kelbrid friend,) Jason said, pointedly ignoring my bad pun.


	3. Authorized DNA

Chapter Three

We followed the tracks for about an hour, when we reached a small stream. It wasn't deep, we could wade across even in Troodon form, but…

(No tracks on the other side,) Jason said.

(He might have waded through the stream for a bit before coming ashore again,) Menderash said.

(Which means that there's no way to track him,) I responded.

(Not with any of our current morphs,) Jason said. His head suddenly perked up. (Hey, neat!)

About a dozen large dinosaurs were wandering out of the forest, each about 30 feet long. Their leathery skin was the color of deer skin, and their head looked like a smooth crescent moon, with a long curved crest coming out of it's head right above the eye.

(Parasaurolophus,) Jason said. (Excellent. They were supposed to be among the rarer species of hadrosaurs. But they're a personal favorite.)

The Parasaurolophus each bent down at the stream and began to lap up the water.

(What are the crests for?) Menderash wondered.

(Scientists aren't really sure,) Jason said. (There are a lot of theories, but dinosaurs are only known from their fossils. You can't tell a skunk or a porcupine's natural defenses from only it's skeleton. Everything's guesswork in paleontology.)

(What are the hypotheses?) Menderash wondered.

(Well, the crest itself is hollow, with multiple chambers,) Jason said. (Theories range. That it was a resonance chamber, so that the Parasaurolophus could communicate with others. The crest is larger on males, so maybe it was used as a display, to attract mates. Some people think it might have been a thermo regulator for the hadrosaur's body temperature. There's even a bizarre, totally out-there, theory that I heard once, that the chambers contain flammable chemicals, and that the crest allowed Parasaurolophus to breath fire as a deterrent to predators. Like an oversized version of the bombardier beetle.)

I blinked and looked at Jason incredulously.

(That one's probably not true,) He said. (It is a little out there. The most likely theory is that they are resonance chambers. That Parasaurolophus communicates with them. There's even a Youtube video someone made of a hypothetical Parasaurolophus call.)

The big male of the heard suddenly let out a low sound, that eerily sounded similar to when you blow your breath over a nearly empty coke bottle, and a sound comes out.

(Cool,) I said.

(I don't think we're going to find the Kelbrid tonight,) Jason said sadly. (Let's rendezvous at the Pemalite ship, and see if Melissa has returned there.)

(Actually,) I said. (Let's take Menderash cliff diving first. We're not far from the edge, and he needs to ditch that Harris Hawk in favor of a local flier.)

(Good idea,) Jason said, as we turned away from the Parasaurolophus herd. The Parasaurolophus responded with a low haunting melody.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The sun was almost up by the time we returned to the wreckage of the Pemalite ship. Menderash had picked up a new morph, a pterasaur with a funky looking head. Jason had called it a "Tapejara".

My own flying reptile morph, was a Pteranodon. Between the three of us, were were nightmares from the skies that very few creatures would have ever messed with.

We landed in front of the "head-half" of the Pemalite ship, and rested on all fours. A lot of movies and TV shows treat pterosaurs as being basically big birds, but when we were on the ground, we were more quadrupedal than anything else. We were just too large to live in trees.

We began demorphing to human and approaching the ship. Erica stepped out.

"Good news," she said.

(You found Melissa?) Jason asked.

"No…," Erica said. "But the Pemalite ship's nano-repair matrix has activated."

(Meaning?) I asked, just as my human lips reformed.

"The ship is fixing itself," Erica said. "In a few weeks, she should fly again."

"That is good news," Jason said. "Any chance the food synthesizer's still working?"

"Ah…No," Erica said. "That's in the aft section." She pointed across the clearing to the other half of the ship.

"There's nothing usable in that section right now," Erica said. "You're on your own in terms of food, for now."

"Pity," Menderash said. "I am rather hungry right now. I have not eaten in human form for several weeks."

"Emily and I can hunt," Jason said. "And we know a few of the safe-to-eat local plants. But first…I think you guys should see something."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"It's huge," Erica said.

"Is this the Pemalite facility?" I asked. We had returned to the building that Jason and I affectionately called the "clone dome." It was where the two of us had been living since crashing on the planet.

"It looks similar to Pemalite technology," Erica admitted. "But it's not the medical research facility we came here looking for. Don't worry though...I'm scanning for that. If it still exists, I should find it, eventually."

"There is a panel here," Menderash said. "It looks vaguely like a bio-lock."

"Go ahead and press it," Jason said. "It's programmed to keep animals out, but it let's humans in."

"So it is a bio-lock," Mendernash said, and he pressed the panel. Nothing happened.

"What?" Jason said.

"My DNA pattern is not authorized," Menderash said.

"That's impossible," Jason said. "It let's Emily and me in all the time. This is where we've been staying."

He walked over and pressed the panel.

(Authorized DNA Pattern detected,) the computer thought-speak voice intoned. The door slid open.

"Jason," Menderash said. "It is not human DNA that is authorized. It is your DNA. Your DNA and Emily's specifically that have pre-programmed access."

"How the hell is that possible?" Jason demanded. And I couldn't blame him. We'd both had access to the dome for two weeks now…We'd sort of taken it for granted that we could get in and out. But now Menderash was telling us that was because…Only we could get in and out.

"I do not know," Menderash admitted. "It does not make logical sense. Perhaps you accidentally programmed your DNA into a computer matrix somewhere else on the planet?"

"This is the only technology we've found since we crashed here," Jason said. "And I found it the first day."

"Then," Menderash said, pausing. "I have absolutely no idea how that is possible."

"It's like you were expected," Erica said. "Someone knew you were coming, and preprogrammed your DNA into the lock…"

(Unscanned Naltron Cell Storage detected,) the computer said as I stepped inside. (DNA sample scanning commencing. Complete. Biodiversity update.)

It did this every time we entered the dome with new morphs. In this case, my Troodon and Pteranodon morphs. Two tubes slid out of the ground on the far end of the dome, containing a baby Troodon clone, and a baby Pteranodon clone. The clones would be released into the wild later, after it was artificially aged a bit.

(Unscanned Naltron Cell Storage detected,) the computer repeated as Jason entered. (DNA sample scanning commencing. Complete. Biodiversity update.)

Another Troodon Clone was added as Jason stepped in.

"Something is scanning your morphs?" Erica asked as she entered.

"And cloning them," I commented, gesturing towards the tubes. Erica did not look at the tubes though, her eyes fell on the strange squishy mattress that Jason and I had been sharing for the past two weeks.

"Two weeks," She said, turning and looking at me. "Two weeks, and you have been _sharing the same bed_, and not once have you mentioned your feelings towards him? How dense are you girl?"

"We needed to share body heat," I said, hushing her. "Be QUIET."

"And nothing happened?" She said incredulously.

"I thought he might kiss me the first night," I admitted. "But no…Nothing did."

Erica sighed exasperatedly as Menderash entered.

(Unscanned Naltron Cell Storage detected,) the computer said as he stepped in. (DNA sample scanning commencing. Error. Rescanning. Error. Rescanning.)

"Okay," Jason said frowning. "It's never done that before."

(Error. Rescanning. Rescan complete. Biodiversity update.)

Five new tubes emerged from the ground. The first one contained a hawk fetus, the second, a Stegosaur, the third one a Troodon, and the fourth one was a Tapejara.

But it was the fifth tube that caught us all off guard.

The fifth tube contained a young, but very distinct, Andalite.

Menderash's eyes widened in shock and he ran to the tube. We quickly joined him.

(That is me,) he said, his thought-speak voice filled with shock. (That is a younger…Clone…Of my original Andalite self.)

"How?" Jason asked.

(I can only speculate,) Menderash said. (When you morph, your DNA patterns are stored in specialized hyper-cooled Naltron capsules. This allows the morphing matrix to access them later. When you are in morph, your original DNA is stored in a similar, but slightly different Naltron capsule. To be retrieved upon demorphing. Entropic cascade failure…The time limit…happens because the second capsule type degrades faster. But the second capsule type IS a necessity in order to trigger the demorph. If the capsules were identical, then there would be dangerous glitches. The morph matrix needs to distinguish between the original DNA and morph DNA.)

"So…" Jason said.

(So…This cloning technology does not. It must have detected a stray Demorph Naltron that contained my original Andalite DNA, scanned it, and cloned it.)

"Can you use that stray capsule to morph into an Andalite?" I inquired curiously.

(No,) Menderash said. (It is a demorph capsule. It won't register with my morphing matrix. My template was reset. This human body is my 'true form' now. It is the only demorph capsule that will register in my morph matrix. The Andalite capsule is a fluke…A…Ghost program, if you will. It will likely break down eventually and cease to exist altogether.)

"Oh," I said. "That's…Kind of sad."

(Of course,) Menderash said. (I could always acquire this clone. That would put a proper morph capsule into my bloodstream.)

"You could be your old Andalite self again," Jason said. "If…You know…We can get this tube open before the clone is released into the wild."

(Do you know how to do that?) Menderash inquired.

"Um…No," Jason said. "We've never had to before. The Morph Clones were just a weird quirk before."

(I am inclined then…To let the machine do it's job,) Menderash said. (Tampering with it might be a bad idea. And besides, the clone is currently far younger than I was when I became a _nothlit._ Let the artificial maturation process continue. Let the clone be released into the wild. Maybe then we can track it down…And I can acquire it.)

"If we're going to be hunting Andalites later," Jason said. "You'll need a good morph for hunting. Menderash, it's time we introduced you to George and Martha."


	4. How We Got Pwned & Jason Got a Planet

Chapter Four

(We got incoming!) I yelled to Jason and Menderash.

It had been less than 24 hours. We had had introduced Menderash to George and Martha, our 'pet' Deinonychus, and Menderash had acquired George.

We had shown Menderash the busted Dracon Beam and he had set about fixing it, while Erica had tackled the problem of the old computer and the other two domes.

But now our first deadline had come. The first (technically second) piece of the One ship was about to come crashing into the plateau. And we had to be there to ensure that the virus didn't escape into the general population of the planet.

I was a pteranodon, circling the skies, providing an aerial lookout.

Down below, Menderash and Jason were Deinonychus, powerful fast moving dromaeosaurs. We weren't precisely sure where the ship would come down, so I was in the sky, and they were on the ground in the fastest morphs we had.

And the ship piece was falling fast…Faster than I could fly, though thankfully, I was not in it's path. It careened across the sky and slammed into a small lake, the heat instantly vaporizing the lake water.

(Quarantine will be easier this time, I think,) I said. (It's not in a dense forest…It crashed into a dried up lake bed. Of course _it_ is what dried up the lake bed.)

(We're here, we see it,) Jason said. (Any sign of the One?)

(Not yet,) I called.

(Anything that it could potentially infect?)

(Yeah,) I said. (A pair of dinosaurs that had been drinking by the lake. They look sort of…Sort of like tanks, really. Or spikey turtles. Armored shells, with spikes.)

(Sounds like an Ankylosaur of some—Ah, I see them,) Jason said. (Looks like…Gargoyleosaurus I think. An early member of the Ankylosaur family.)

(They don't seem to be in much of a hurry,) I said.

(They're tanks. Their armor is virtually impenetrable. They have no reason to hurry. They have almost no predators.)

(Their only vulnerable spot is their soft underbellies.) Jason said. (A predator would have to flip them over to get at those underbellies. These guys aren't in a hurry because they know nothing can mess with them.)

(Except maybe an alien virus,) I said. (How can we get them to move?)

Jason and Menderash had resumed human form below, and were approaching the Gargoyleosaurs.

Jason placed a hand on one of their heads, and Menderash the other.

(What are you doing? We're trying to scare them away…If you acquire them, then they go into a trance,) I said.

"Yeah," Jason yelled at me. "And that trance can be a lot like hypnosis. I'm sort of hoping that by putting them in the trance…I can…Steer them. Like they were hypnotized. Sort of…Suggest them to get out of here."

(You really think that will work?) I asked.

"I have no better ideas," he said, as the pair of them gently nudged the Gargoyleosauruses towards the treeline. To my surprise, the Gargoyleosauruses followed the nudge. Two huge, car-sized lumbering tanks…Being lead by a pair of humans.

Satisfied that the dinosaurs were heading well away from the crash site, Jason and Menderash broke contact with the dinosaurs, and prepared to change morphs.

I folded my wings and dove down, landing beside them.

"You know it's funny," Jason said as I finished the demorph.

"What?" I asked.

"When we left, I considered your wolf and my alligator to be our 'combat morphs'," He said. "But here we are about to go into combat…And the morphs we have are so very different."

I shrugged. "Well you didn't figure on us being Dinomorphs, so that's the reason, right there."

I focused my mind on my true 'combat morph'. Chasmosaurus. It's a member of the triceratops family. But smaller. Like a rhino is smaller than an elephant though. I was still getting big.

Two horns erupted above my eyebrows, followed quickly by another horn spurting out of my nose. My lips hardened into a sharp beak. My body began to become heavily muscled, and my fingers melted together, forming into big padded elephant-like feet. My tail erupted behind me, and I fell forward onto all fours.

My forehead expanded, stretching into the bony, spiked shield that was the Chasmosaur's distinctive crest. I was power. I was strength. I was an adult bull Chasmosaur. No one messed with my herd and lived.

I had heard that Rhinoceroses had very poor vision, but Chasmosaurs did not. I saw everything in bright colors, even more vividly than my human vision did.

I glanced back at my companions. Jason, my best friend and the guy I was madly in love with, was now a powerful, deadly Tyrannosaurus. An apex predator. _The_ apex predator.

Menderash had spent two weeks among a herd of stegosaurus, which was the form he had now adopted. I felt a little disappointed that they had become famous dinosaurs, and I was stuck with a famous dinosaur's cousin. Maybe I could go triceratops hunting later, although frankly, I hadn't seen a triceratops since arriving on the plateau, it was possible there weren't any.

_Strange herd,_ the Chasmosaur mind thought underneath my own. Its mind was powerful, but simple. Its goal in life was to protect the herd. The nature of the herd mattered little to it. Even though my 'herd' was a tyrannosaurus and a stegosaurus, it still understood my companions to be it's 'herd' and thus would protect them at all costs.

I liked this morph. It's simplicity in it's purpose was refreshing. The three of us approached the gigantic metal spire. Still, nothing was coming out of it.

Jason stepped into the muddy bowl that was formerly a lake. His weight sank almost three feet into the impression. But he was still a T-rex. Three feet was barely his ankles. So he kept walking. Menderash and I followed suit.

We quietly began to circle the spire, inspecting it closely.

Quite suddenly, the wall in front of us exploded. Six very disgusting looking creatures staggered out.

(Six survivors this time,) Jason said. (Let's take them down.)

"Ah," One of the creatures said, looking at us. "The morpher. And he has brought friends this time. Fascinating."

Jason charged the creature, which vaguely resembled a bipedal fish, with a single eye in it's forehead. He bit down on the thing and began shaking it violently.

I turned my attention towards a pair of Taxxons. At least…They sort of looked like Taxxons. Though the had Hork-Bajir blades sticking out of their bodies at odd angles.

I lowered my head and charged them, slamming into them with my horns. They burst apart instantly, splattering like jello.

Menderash made a sweeping motion with his tail, and skewered two more creatures, creatures too disgusting to describe—Think green jellyfish with eyeballs and you're in the ballpark—He skewered them on his tail and slammed them into the side of the ship.

(It's like tail-fighting!) Menderash said giddily.

(This is almost too easy,) I said. I really wish I hadn't.

The three of us converged upon the final creature, a strange looking bipedal leonine form with four eyes and powerful six-fingered gorilla-like arms.

It almost seemed to smirk at us…Then it's skin began to bubble, and suddenly it burst open into a massive bladed cephalopod. Seriously. Before it had been a mere seven foot tall. Big, compared to our human forms, but small by saurian standards. But somehow, in a matter of seconds, it had burst from a relatively tiny creature, into a massive thirty-foot tall creature resembling a brown squid.

Strictly speaking, it looked like a giant crab with a squid growing out of it's back, though the crab-like part had no eyes or mouth parts of any kind. And just growing out of it's back was a massive squid, with about 30 tentacles flailing wildly, each tentacle was covered in Hork-Bajir blades. The only part of it's body that resembled it's old form were it's massive eyes, there were two eye sockets, each containing two eyes.

(Oh God,) I exclaimed, upon seeing the creature. It's bladed tentacle forms suddenly began to flail wildly, lashing out at us, and lacerating our bodies.

"You, and this World," it said, though how it was still speaking I wasn't quite sure. "Will all become a part of us. All that is, and all that there ever will be, will be One."

(I can't,) I staggered, blood pouring from wounds in my body…The giant salad-shooter kept attacking, kept slicing.

(Jason I…) I started to say. The Tyrannosaur shuddered and collapsed near me…I think he was unconscious. Unconscious from blood loss. His blood was everywhere.

I knew this was the end…Even our dinosaur morphs, as powerful as they were, could not fight this thing that the One had become. At least though…I would be by Jason.

I staggered closer to him, and affectionately nuzzled that dying tyrannosaur.

(Jason, I love you,) I whispered. But knew he couldn't hear me.

Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by a massive blast of white-hot energy that slammed into the alien creature. It shrieked in pain.

A second and third blast struck it and it began to crumble. Fourth and fifth shots struck, and it was completely vaporized.

(Fools,) A new thought-speak voice declared. (The One is a single entity. All of it's parts are equal to its whole. You cannot defeat it by using the same tactics twice. It LEARNS, and adapts to them. It will be prepared for those tactics the second time you face it.)

I turned my head towards the source of the energy blasts that had saved us.

(I highly recommend that you all demorph,) the voice said. (Before you die from the wounds it inflicted upon your meat.)

The creature stepped into my line of sight. It was about seven and a half feet tall, and insectoid in appearance. Its skin was metal. It shone and reflected like chrome, but it was green. It was bipedal, with long gangly arms, each stretching down so that it touched the gorund. Arms longer than it's legs.

Metallic horns, like massive beetle mandibles, shiny green, were on its back, framing its chrome plated head. The helmet like head had no eyes, but it did have a large, human like mouth.

Its right arm ended in a massive three-fingered claw, while it's left arm was shaped vaguely like some sort of plasma-blaster. Like a shredder or dracon cannon. The blaster suddenly began making a mechanical whirring noise, and retracted into its arm, the hand almost looking like it was morphing. Morphing into a three-clawed hand, like its other hand.

(I am Muk-Luk, of the Kelbrid,) he said. (And I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend that you demorph, before you die from blood loss.)

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It had taken some time to get Jason to wake up so he could demorph, but in the end, we did manage it. Once we were human again, refreshed and renewed, we backed away from the crash site, and Muk-Luk vaporized the entire structure.

"The virus requires physical contact to spread," He said, speaking out loud instead of via thought-speech. "It has not yet figured out how to mutate into an airborne vector. Thank _Ipthflaar._"

"You seriously saved our butts back there," Jason said.

"You had clearly faced the One before, in a similar morph or situation," Muk-Luk said. "It was obvious that you expected the same tactic to be successful again. But the One has assimilated entire civilizations. It seldom falls prey to the same tactic twice. It did not expect me. The next ship piece that falls, will."

"Is that a mechanical suit?" Menderash asked.

"It is," Muk-Luk said. "An environmental suit, meant to protect the Kelbrid. It is impervious to the One. And most meat finds our appearance to be disturbing."

"Meat?" Jason asked, frowning.

"Is that not the correct translation?" He said frowning. "English was only programmed into the suit's translator circuits recently. It is still imperfect."

"I think you mean 'species'," Jason said. "Based on context, anyway."

I wasn't so sure. The Kelbrid had used the term 'meat' before, when we had been dying.

"No viral prions remain," Muk-Luk said, sounding satisfied. "This is good. You were in the ship that crashed first, correct. Do you have a base or safe haven?"

"Yeah," Jason said. "We can take you there, if you'd like."

"That would be acceptable," He said.

"Oooh, look!" Jason said, suddenly pointing. Several large creatures with long necks were emerging from the forest.

"I know those," I said. "Brachiosaurus, right?"

"That's right," Jason said grinning.

"I am learning!" I said. "Yay me!"

"You express familiarity with the local meat?" Muk-Luk asked. "Is this not an alien world to you?"

"It is, and it isn't," Jason said. "This world was terraformed."

"Of that I am aware," Muk-Luk said. "But the terraformers vanished a long time ago. As such, by Kelbrid law, this planet belongs to the first sentient species to set foot here. That was the Kelbrid themselves, twelve cycles ago, on an initial survey."

"Okay," Jason said. "Sure…That's…Perfectly fair. Your space, or whatever. But…These animals, these plants…They're earth animals. Animals that we thought went extinct on earth a very long time ago."

Muk-Luk stopped walking, as if what Jason said had disturbed him.

"You are certain of this?" he said.

"Uh," Jason said. "Yeah. That's why we're familiar with these animals. They're earth animals."

"You can test the DNA, if you doubt it," Menderash said. "You will find that the identity codon sequence matches that of Earth-Life."

Muk-Luk suddenly grabbed Jason's arm, and scratched his left hand.

"Hey!" Jason said.

The Kelbrid then did the same to a nearby fern.

It then stood silently.

"You are correct," he said. "Codons identify the same genetic source code. Your world is your world. I apologize."

"No big," Jason said, confused by Muk-Luk's sentence.

"Filing your claim with the Kelberiad," he said. "This will take but a few moments."

"Wait," Jason said. "What? What claim?"

"Kelbrid Law states that a world with no sentient life, belongs to the first sentient to set foot upon it's surface," Muk-Luk said. "The Kelberiad has received your claim. Kelbrid law also states that a terraformed planet is the property of the world that it's surface life came from. DNA is the code of life. It is Kelbrid Law."

"So," Jason said. "This planet…Actually belongs to earth?"

"No," Muk-Luk said. "Both laws are applicable here. This planet belongs to the first humans to set foot on this planet. Humans are the sentient life of earth, and this planet is filled with earth animals."

We all stopped.

"Wait…" Jason said. "What?"

"That would be...," Menderash turned and looked at Jason.

"Did he just say…?" I started to ask.

"The Kelberiad accepts your claim," Muk-Luk said. "And now inquires what you intend to do with the planet?"

"Jason," I said. "We own a planet."

Jason stared blankly.

"Strictly speaking," Muk-Luk said. "The planet is the property of the leader of your expedition. It is, however, his right to do with it as he sees fit. The Kelberiad would like a response."

"Jason," I said, placing my hand on his shoulder. "_You _own a planet."

"Um…," Jason snapped out of his funk. "Well…Obviously it should be a scientific outpost, and research facility. I mean…It's one of the greatest treasures discovered in human history. I should be…Studied. Learned from. But, that's really priority number two, isn't it?"

Muk-Luk turned toward Jason, which was kinda creepy, given that the suit didn't have any eyes. It was like he was looking at Jason, but not looking at him.

"Priority one has to be defeating the One," Jason said. "The wealth of scientific knowledge here is useless, if the One just absorbs the planet. The One has to go down."

"The Kelberiad accepts your proposal," Muk-Luk said.

"Proposal?" Jason said.

"This World will be protected for scientific advancement of your species, and the preservation of this World's life," Muk-Luk said. "In exchange, you will aid in the fight against the One."

"Weren't we doing that anyway?" I asked, frowning.

"Yes," Jason said…"But not officially. Now it's official, right Muk-Luk?"

"Correct," he said. "The status and nature of this planet is on file with the Kelberiad, the highest Kelbrid authority of Law."

"And the leader of our expedition," I said, leaning on Jason's shoulder, and grinning. "Jason Michael Grant. Leader of the Dinomorphs, first human to land on Jurassic Planet."

"So noted in the Kelberiad records," Muk-Luk said.

"Dear Lord," Jason said, paling. "I own a planet."


	5. Meat

Chapter Five

I noticed two familiar silhouettes in the nearby jungle, and a low series of bark-like noises. I turned and grabbed Jason's shoulder.

"I see George and Martha in the forest," I said. "You and Menderash have some new Morph-Clones to unload at the dome. Why don't you take Mukky back to home-base, while I go rustle us up some grub?"

"Yeah," he said, looking distracted. He looked at me. "What's your impression of Muk-Luk?"

I was slightly taken aback.

"Um…Why?" I asked.

"I trust your impressions of people. There's something about him that…Bugs me."

"Besides the fact that his armor looks like a giant bug?"

"Yeah, that, partially," Jason said. "But also…Why armor? Is he hiding something? If so, what? And why? He said most species are disturbed by Kelbrid appearances…Why are most species disturbed by it? And what's with the whole 'me owning a planet' thing?"

"I think that last part is just an extension of what Jake said back on earth," I commented. Jason raised an eyebrow. "He said, that the Kelbrid are super respectful of other species territory. I think that after you proved your right to this world, in the eyes of Kelbrid law…That they're just being respectful."

"Okay," Jason said. "But what about the rest of it?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "I do think that he's hiding something. But at the same time, I don't think that he's lied to us. He could have let the One shred us back there, but he didn't. He saved our lives. That counts for a lot in my book."

"Fair enough," Jason said. "Hop to it…George and Martha sound hungry."

I stepped away from the others, and focused on one of my favorite morphs since crashing on this planet. Deinonychus. Pack hunters. Like wolves.

But they're built more like the Velociraptors from Jurassic Park. They're essentially that, more or less. Though the coloring is different. But they're a pretty fun morph. Like a wolf in a forest, they know what they're doing and how to hunt.

My snout extended in front of me, as my tail stretched out of my spine. My fingers and toes melted together as my weight shifted forward. My teeth sharpened, turning into tiny daggers in my mouth. My big toe stretched into a deadly Andalite-tail-shaped claw.

My senses came online, and I caught a whiff of George and Martha in the forest. I let out a series of sharp chirps and in a heartbeat the two real Deinonychus were by my side.

(Let's roll,) I said in thought-speech.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

We caught ourselves a nice big fat protoceratops for dinner. Protoceratops were everywhere in the jungle. They appeared to have filled a niche in the ecosystem occupied by wild pigs back on earth.

They breed proficiently and are everywhere. This particular protoceratops though…He was a big one. Almost twice the size of the protos we usually caught. I could tell George and Martha were pleased with themselves too.

We had, somehow, earned the loyalty of these two dinosaurs, when we saved George from a slow death from being trapped underneath a fallen tree. Although we had done it, with the intention of acquiring George and Martha's DNA. But shortly after that, we cemented our relationship with the dinosaurs by feeding them the leftovers of our dinner from the first night here.

Jason figures this is how humans and dogs might have become friends. Either way, the two dinosaurs had been pretty darn loyal to us. They hadn't even protested (much) when we introduced Menderash to them, and allowed Menderash to acquire George's DNA.

George and Martha had gotten used to our odd (by Deinonychus standards) routine. Once dinner was caught, we would take it back to the clone-dome carve it up, Jason and I would take our choice meats, and cook them up on our little makeshift stove, and the Deinonychus would take the leftovers.

I think one of the reasons that George and Martha were so keen on us, is that in the wild, choice cuts of meat included internal organs…Those were the coveted parts of any kill for most wild animals. But humans don't like organs, for the most part…Fois Gras notwithstanding.

So while Jason and I would eat the muscular parts of the dinosaurs we killed…The 'best parts' the organs, would go to the Deinonychus.

So the three of us dragged the proto back to camp, where Jason had already set up the campfire. We had constructed a small makeshift grill to go over the fire. Jason had already tossed a few carrot-like roots that we had discovered about a week ago onto the grill. We dumped the proto next to the fire.

Then I began to strip the creature, carving it up like a thanksgiving turkey. I'll leave it mostly to your imagination, but butchering is messy work. After we had stripped enough meat for me, Jason, Menderash, and even a little extra for the Kelbrid, we left the remains of the dinosaur to be devoured by George and Martha, who were all to eager to do so.

I demorphed and slipped inside the dome to wash my hands. I would be forever grateful that there was at least, running water and a toilet in our camp.

I stepped outside to find Jason casually cooking our dinner.

"You got a big one, this time," He said.

"Little piggy was so fat," I commented "I was surprised that we were the first predators to get him."

"That's what I love about you, Em," He said casually, and my heart flittered. "You're not squeamish."

"I live on a farm, Jason," I said. "Squeamish is for the weak."

"Exactly," he said.

Menderash had suddenly appeared with Muk-Luk.

"Muk-Luk," Menderash said. "Has found an entryway into the second dome. Though obviously, we could not get in, ourselves. An authorized DNA pattern is required."

"We'll check it out later," I said.

"What are you doing?" Muk-Luk said, frowning.

"Cooking dinner," Jason said, checking one of the carrots.

"Cooking?" Muk-Luk said, frowning. "That term is unfamiliar…"

"We use fire," I said. "Heat, to kill potential pathogens and tenderize the food we're going to eat."

"That is meat," Muk-Luk said in surprise. "You…Are carnivores?"

"Humans are actually omnivores," Jason said casually. "We require both vegetable and meat in our diets to be healthy. Most of the local plants, are ones we're not familiar with, so we've been cautious about eating them, but the human digestive system can handle just about any kind of animal meat."

Muk-Luk suddenly seemed relieved, though with a giant green bug-like mechanical suit, who can tell.

"Kelbrid are carnivores too," He said, sounding very relieved indeed. "It is not a fact we share, often. Most sentient species have turned out to be herbivorous. It has made us feel…Awkward."

I thought about that…It was true…Most of the sentient species I had heard of were vegetarians of some kind. Andalites ate grass. Hork-Bajir ate bark. Arn eat tree sap. Even the Yeerks didn't eat meat, they ate Kandrona rays from their sun.

The only carnivorous sentient that I had heard of outside the planet, were the Taxxons. Not exactly a species to brag about.

"That explains the meat thing," I said. _Sort of, anyway._ But something about it was still off. The Kelbrid were still very mysterious…Still hiding something…And like any good detective…Like Holmes and Poirot, I was determined to figure it out.

"Would you like some?" Jason asked. "Obviously your species doesn't cook it's food, since the concept was unfamiliar to you, but…"

"Yes," Muk-Luk said. "I would very much like to partake, if you are offering. I have not eaten in some cycles."

Jason took a strip of protoceratops meat on a stick, and handed it to the Kelbrid. The Kelbrid took a large bite out of it with the mouth on his armor, and appeared to swallow it.

"Mmmm," he said. "Quite tasty."

He handed the stick back to Jason.

"You don't want any more?" Jason asked in surprise.

"My digestive system operates rather slowly," Muk-Luk said. "This one bite will sustain me for weeks."

Jason blinked.

"Wow," he said. "Remind me not to have you over for a Cajun get-together. A guy who only eats one bite would not be popular."

"I see why you cook your food, as well," Muk-Luk said. "The elimination of pathogens is definitely an admirable goal. Especially given the One. Heat is its only consistent weakness. It hasn't been able to absorb any species that will allow the viral prions to survive intense heat. This is why Kelbrid armor is equipped with high-intensity plasma blasters, like the one I used to save you."

"Makes sense," Jason said. "A lot of pathogens can't take the heat. It's why fevers are one of the body's natural defenses. Body heats up, germs die."

"Does it posses any other weaknesses?" Menderash asked. "Anything we can exploit?"

"It is limited by the number of hosts it has," Muk-Luk said. "And the DNA it has at its disposal. It is not creative. It cannot recombine DNA into new pathways…It can only use the DNA of creatures it has consumed."

"So," I said. "It can only use an ability or power that one of its hosts has, like Hork-Bajir blades, or Andalite stalk-eyes. It can't just make up something new, like, oh…Heat-proof skin."

"Correct," Muk-Luk said. "And thankfully, it has not encountered a creature with Heat-Proof skin, so it remains vulnerable to heat."

"That gives me an idea!" I said, suddenly. "An idea for a trap we can set for the next ship piece that comes down…In, how long, Mendy?"

"A little over fourteen hours," Menderash responded. Erica had given us a timetable for every ship piece due to crash into the planet. Menderash had memorized the timetable, and was keeping track. He might have had a human body, but his mind was still that of an Andalite, and Andalites are natural timekeepers.

"Great!" I said. "Plenty of time to set our trap."


	6. Non-Genetic Factors

Chapter Six

With our plan set firmly in place, Jason and I set out to explore the middle dome. Menderash led us to the doorway, which was in a denser part of the Jungle surrounding the domes, explaining why Jason and I had had trouble locating it before.

Menderash made generous use of his stegosaur morph's tail, and hacked a path for us. Once at the door, I pressed the button, and the panel slid open, with the standard thought-speak greeting.

The middle dome was clearly a storage facility, as it appeared to be filled to the brim with boxes. It was virtually a labyrinth of boxes.

"Bet there are supplies in these," Jason said. We grabbed the nearest loose box, and pried it open. It was so old and warped that it popped open easily. Inside were over a hundred small crystals, each no bigger than a grape.

"Diamonds?" I asked.

"I don't think so," Jason said.

"Diamonds are compressed coal," Menderash observed. "These crystals are clearly not. Observe the interplay between the light and the way the crystals refract."

"Taking your word for it, dude," I said.

Jason pried open a second box. "Hey! Blankets!"

"You two have fun," I said, as Menderash moved to open another box.

I returned to the front of the dome set, and paused. Muk-Luk was standing there; his back was turned from me. However his armor was bent, I could see his chest, split into two halves, like an open cupboard drawer, and his head was backwards and upside-down, like the cap on a sports drink bottle.

It took me a second to understand what I was looking at. His armor was opened, exposing the real him to the afternoon sunlight, but his back was turned towards me.

I stepped closer, and suddenly I heard the sounds of mechanical whirring, as the armor snapped back into place.

He turned and "looked" at me, though the faceplate on the armor head still possessed no eyes, and therefore "looked' probably wasn't the right word. "Faced" seems more appropriate.

"I enjoy the sensation of sunlight on my body," He said, apologetically. "I hope I did not alarm you."

He was determined to keep his true shape a secret. He casually dipped his left arm into the water bucket that Jason and I kept by the fire, to put it out in the evening. I saw the water level go down as the armor sucked some up…and then the truth hit me.

"You're a plant!" I said, pleased at having deciphered the mystery.

Muk-Luk froze.

"No I am not," he said after about a minute.

"You take a long time to digest meat," I said. "You enjoy the sensation of sunlight on your body, and your suit intakes water through a different entrance than you do food."

"On earth, in swampy areas, where soil quality is poor, and there is a lot of competition for sunlight," I said. "Certain plants have developed a means of compensation for the lack of nutrients. The Venus flytrap, the pitcher plant, the sundew…they all are carnivores, luring in insects and other small animals, in order to catch them and eat them. Thus acquiring the nutrients they lack."

"But I'm guessing that in the Kelbrid's case," I said. "You didn't develop lures…Instead, you developed…I don't know, a means of hunting your prey. Hunting requires intelligence. It requires outsmarting the creatures you intend to eat. It's believed by some scientists that humans developed sentience because we hunted for food, and I'm guessing the same is true of the Kelbrid."

"You're respectful of other species turf," I continued. "Because you've moved past the swamp where you first developed, and you vaguely remember what it was like to compete for sunlight, and it's not a fun memory, so you'd rather live and let live…Let everyone have their own turf…Their own sunlight. Because even though you need to supplement it, you still photosynthesize. Your armor's mouth speaks and can take in meat, for food…but to get water to your roots…you use the arms. Maybe the legs too."

Muk-Luk was dead silent for several minutes.

Then, his armor slid open again, revealing a small plant stalk, purple, and ridged like a coconut tree. It had two leaves, looking very much like flytrap leaves sticking off of its body. One was closed shut; tightly trapping the protoceratops meat we had given him earlier. The other was open and was red and bumpy on the interior. It reminded me of a tongue, and I think he had taste buds. Above the leaves were purple flowers, with some sharp looking barbs sticking out of the center.

Natural weapons. It could shoot those barbs, but sucking in air, into the flowers, and then launching the barbs at high velocity. I was right, this was a plant that hunted. The top of the plant's stem contained a large green pod, with a single vine sticking out of it. The vine was moving about inside the armor…Manipulating panels and operating controls.

(How did you figure that out?) Muk-Luk asked, now speaking in thought-speak. His verbal voice was just a manipulation of the suit's controls. Kelbrid have no mouths, being plants. Thought-Speak is their natural form of communication.

"Little gray cells," I said tapping my head and affecting a fake Belgian accent.

(I do not understand?) He said.

"I was observant," I said. "I paid attention. The clues were there, I just had to look for them, and put them all together. I love mysteries, and you were being very mysterious."

The Kelbrid's leaves twitched.

(I apologize for the deception,) He said. (When we Kelbrid first ventured into space, we expected to encounter alien life forms that were…Plant-like, such as ourselves. But it became clear to us fairly quickly, that most sentient life was meat, not plant. Even more terrifying, it was herbivorous. We were in a galaxy of creatures built and designed to eat us. And we, on our homeworld, would eat meat, ourselves. It was as if _Ipthflaar_ had played a cruel joke on the Kelbrid.)

"It's not a cruel joke," I said. "My dad's a pastor, and he was amazed when the Andalites were revealed to the planet. He said 'Our God is so amazing…He seeded this entire galaxy with diverse and amazing life.' My dad sung hymns all week, it didn't shake his Faith, it made it stronger. God did what he did, because Life is wonderful, and diverse, and all of creation sings. He didn't make the life in the Universe to be a cruel joke on the Kelbrid…He made us different, so that we could learn from each other. So that in understanding our differences, we could see what made us special. He did it so that we could grow."

Muk-Luk's leaves twitched.

(You are a different sort of creature, human,) Muk-Luk said. (You are…Far more open-minded than many of the creatures that we encountered upon first exploring the cosmos. Many of them greeted us with suspicion and mistrust.)

"That's their problem," I said. "Not yours."

(Perhaps,) Muk-Luk said. (But it became clear, that if the Kebrid was going to continue to explore the galaxy…To meet new species…That our true nature would have to be hidden. So we redesigned our transportation machines…Built them to resemble meat—Animal-life—I mean, and began concealing our true nature from other species.)

The armor suddenly whirred and shut.

(You will not tell the others, will you?) He asked fearfully.

"Well I'd like to," I said. "I fancy myself a bit of a detective, and I love the triumph of solving a good mystery, which you definitely were. But…I won't if you don't want me to."

(I would prefer if it remained between us,) He said.

"All right," I said. "I won't tell them. But you know, my friends are pretty cool. I don't think they'll care if you're a plant."

(Please don't tell them,) He insisted. (Please…Not even your mate.)

"Mate?" I said startled. "I don't have a mate."

(Really?) Muk-Luk said. (I just assumed that you and Jason were mates, due to the increase in hormone production and pulmonary organ palpitations when you are near him. Granted, my knowledge of sexual reproduction in animal species is rather…Limited. Biology is not my field, but I thought those were the indicators.)

"Oh, God," I said mortified. "Please…I'll keep your secret…But promise me that you won't tell Jason about my hormone levels or heart palpitations."

(I…Promise?) He said. (It was a secret? I thought it was fairly obvious…The hormones alone almost drowned my usual sense receptors.)

"Oh, God." I said again, even more mortified.

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(Still no sign of Melissa,) Jason said. (I'm starting to get very worried about her.)

(Yeah, me too,) I said. It wasn't that I didn't like Melissa…I did. She was sweet, and cool, and just a genuinely nice person. But…She was a cool, older woman, with an awesome job, that I knew Jason thought was pretty freaking amazing…It might have been petty, and certainly not progressive of me…But, I was afraid Melissa was the kind of girl that Jason could fall for. His type, basically.

And that scared me more than any of the dinosaurs…So, even though I was worried about Melissa, I was also sort of glad that she wasn't around. I know…I'm a horrible person, right? I didn't think that she was hurt, mind you…But I wasn't complaining about her absence.

I crouched low. We were in the jungle near where the One ship piece was set to crash in the next hour or so.

Setting my trap required us to be fully prepared…But Jason pointed out that the One saw our 'combat morphs' last time, and if it sensed our presence right away, that it might somehow figure out a counter…So, we opted to morph animals that we were fairly certain that the One hadn't seen.

Jason was a Dracorex Hogwartsia, a creature that…No fooling, looked like a miniature European dragon with no wings. It was about the size of a carthorse, and super tough looking.

Menderash was lumbering nearby in his Gargoyleosaurus morph. I had gone Deinonychus, and was crouching in the bushes…Seemingly stalking Jason's herbivorous morph. This was a ploy, however…Or a ruse. And one we wouldn't maintain for very long.

In my Deinonychus claw, I held our Dracon Beam weapon.

(The trench is dug,) Muk-Luk said. (Let us hope that your plan works.)

(I think it has a good chance,) I said. (You said that it's not creative…So it can't anticipate a new plan that is implemented against it…And even if it could…What could it possibly do from its ship?)

(I do not know,) Muk-Luk admitted. (But the Kelbrid have been fighting the One for a long time. We try not to underestimate it.)

(I think that this plan will not only work…But it will work more than once.)

"I hope so," he said, switching to verbal speech. "I certainly hope so."

My sharp dinosaur hearing suddenly picked up a loud noise, and looked up.

(Incoming!) I yelled.

But Jason and Menderash were already departing from the crash site. Menderash was demorphing as well, since the Gargoyleosaurus was not a fast creature.

The Dracorex was, though, and within seconds he had departed.

The ship piece slammed into the earth, and sent out a minor shockwave where it struck.

(Okay,) I said, turning and darting back into the forest. I ran a hundred feet and leapt over the six-foot trench that Muk-Luk had dug with his plasma canon.

I landed on the other side and fired the Dracon Beam at the large brush pile that rested on the side I was just on.

It ignited instantly. Muk-Luk fired his canon at another brushpile.

Menderash fired a second Dracon that we had found in the storage dome. Within seconds, the forest was ablaze…But the fire did not spread over the trench that Muk-Luk had dug.

The One ship, however, had just crash-landed in the middle of a massive, but contained, forest fire.

I demorphed and remorphed quickly…Becoming a pteranodon again. I took to the sky, joining Jason and Menderash in their own Pterasaur morphs. Gripping the dracons in our wing talons, we circled the ship in order to shoot down any Unan Infected that attempted to fly away from the ship as we assumed that they did have the DNA for flight in their repository.

Muk-Luk joined us, his armor having sprouted large transparent beetle-like wings and firing rockets from his back like a jetpack.

None came, and the forest fire burned any infectee that did manage to stagger out. We circled for about an hour, before Muk-Luk began firing upon the metal spire with his plasma canon and vaporizing it.

(Whoo-Hoo!) Jason crowed. (Emily is a genius! Your plan worked brilliantly.)

(Indeed,) Menderash said. (This is optimistic…The One crash lands into forest fires…It is doomed from the moment it hits.)

"Let us still proceed with caution," Muk-Luk said. "The One learns. The next one might not be so easy."

(Erica had the coordinates narrowed down pretty darn good,) Jason said. (Why don't we pre-start the fire next time…See them get away from that!)

(Score one for the good guys,) I said. (Five more ship pieces to go!)

I should have known that Muk-Luk was right…It's never that easy.


	7. We Fall into a Trap

Chapter Seven

According to Erica's timetable, we had almost 5 days before the next One ship piece hit. We were determined to celebrate our victory over the latest crashed ship.

We returned to the clone dome, which was now slightly better furnished, as we had found some tables and chairs inside the storage portion.

When we got back, Erica was waiting for us outside. She informed us that repairs on the Pemalite ship were going slower than she anticipated. The Pemalites had built it to last, and the repair matrix was incredible, but even the Pemalites had not anticipated the ship being ripped in half.

We showed her the storage bay, and she flipped out over the box of crystals.

"These are Pemalite Crystals!" she squealed upon seeing the box.

"That sounds familiar," Jason said.

"One of the Animorphs earliest missions," Erica said. "Was to retrieve a Pemalite Crystal that had fallen into the hands of the Yeerks. In the Animorphs official war diaries, they omitted all reference to the Chee, but they did call the crystal by its proper name. Only stating that it had been created by a now-extinct race."

"So what are they?" I asked.

"The most advanced computer processor in the galaxy," Erica said. "Just one of these could run every ship in the entire Andalite fleet."

Menderash scoffed in Thought-Speech, and Erica smiled.

"It's true," she said. "They could even reprogram a Chee. Remove the nonviolence function."

"Will you?" I asked, curiously.

"No," Erica said. "It would be a trauma that I really wouldn't be equipped to deal with. Chee are built to be pacifistic for a reason."

"But I haven't seen so many Pemalite Crystals in one place since before the Howler attack," she continued. "Most were destroyed when the Pemalites were…Pemalite technology is a rare find…And you have a whole box of the most powerful processor they made."

(That is interesting,) Menderash commented. (It might indicate that whoever built this place, extracted the technology from the Pemalite base we came here to find.)

"I could probably use these to repair that computer in the clone-room," Erica said, scooping up a handful.

"Go for it," Jason said.

We returned to the campsite and casually sat around the fire, grilling up a small dinosaur that Jason had caught with George and Martha this morning.

"Starting to get a little scraggly there," I commented to Jason, reaching up with my hand and brushing the stubble that was forming on his face.

"Give me a break," he said. "I haven't shaved since the Pemalite ship…No holographic razor."

He frowned, glancing at me.

"No offense, Emily," He said. "But how are your legs still smooth? You haven't been able to shave either."

"I haven't shaved my legs since we started morphing," I admitted. "I just sort of…My mental image of myself has shaved legs, so, my legs are shaved when I demorph."

"What?" Jason said, frowning. "That's…Not how it works? You can't alter your hair length when you morph…"

"That IS one of the non-genetic factors that the Morphing technology scans for when acquiring," Menderash commented. "Fat content, hair length, things that are more affected by natural development, than DNA itself…However…It's possible that Emily is an _Estreen_."

"Uh," I said. "No way. I've tried to make my morphs look pretty, and it doesn't work."

"There is more than one type of _Estreen,_" Menderash said. "Morph dancers who create beauty from their morphing process, they are the most famous…But some _Estreens_ can morph with greater speed than ordinary morphers. And some…Some are capable of making cosmetic changes to their morphs, or natural forms."

"Cosmetic changes?" I asked.

"Anything that is not part of the DNA factor," Menderash said. "You can't change your hair or eye color. That's DNA. But…In theory, you could change the fat content of your morphs. Or hair length, as I believe you have been subconsciously doing with your legs."

"Finger nails?" I asked, looking at my hands.

"Yes," Menderash said. "Human fingernail length is a non-genetic factor."

"Age?" I asked, suddenly.

"No," Menderash said. "Age is not strictly speaking a genetic factor, but the length of a creature's chromosomes are determined by its age, which is what the morphing technology factors in. A morph doesn't age when not in use."

"I'm gonna try something," I said, and focused my mind on my Deinonychus morph.

I quietly assumed the morph while the others watched with interest. Then, I focused on becoming human again…But this time, with a cute short hairstyle that I'd seen in a magazine. Typically, my hair was shoulder-length…But now, I was imagining it as only being neck length.

Sure enough, as my human form finished reappearing, I reached up and felt my hair…Which was now neck-length instead of shoulder length.

"That is so cool," I said. "I never need a haircut again."

"Where is the extra hair length?" Jason asked, frowning.

"It is now among the excess mass floating freely in Zero-Space," Menderash said casually.

"What do you think?" I asked, spinning around.

"Very _chic_," Erica said.

"I like your hair longer," Jason said. "I think it looks better. Not that you don't look good now."

I tried to hide my disappointment…But you know what…I might be in love with Jason, and he might be my best friend…But a girl's hair is her identity. I could do with it whatever I wanted, and I didn't care what Jason thought about it.

"Can the hair _Estreen_-Thing be taught?" Jason asked. "I'd definitely like to ditch shaving if I could."

"You look like you have already," I teased.

"Har, har," Jason responded.

"Emily might be able to teach you, or at least explain how she does it," Menderash said. "But you will never be able to pick up on it as well as she does. It is a talent unique to her…Well, her and _Estreens_ like her."

"I can project a razor for you to use," Erica said. "I'll have to be in proximity, though. Pretty sure there's an advanced 3D printer in the dome though…Constructing the cloning chamber tubes. If I fix the computer, I might be able to print you a razor."

"Whatever's clever," Jason said.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

With the discovery of the blankets and more mattresses in the storage dome, Jason, Menderash, and I no longer needed to share a bed. Which was good, because it was already awkward enough.

However, I couldn't sleep. So, while Jason and Menderash snoozed, I slipped outside to look at the stars.

Jurassic Planet's sky was half-filled by a gorgeous wall of orange, yellow, and blue. A nebula that I was told was less than a light-year away. It also had two moons, each about half the size of earth's moon. One was always full, the other went through phases like Earth's moon, but at a faster rate, being full every three nights. It was a beautiful sky. So very alien…But familiar nonetheless.

Muk-Luk stood nearby, casually tending the fire.

"Guess Kelbrid don't sleep?" I asked.

"On the contrary," He said. "We close our blossoms and rest our conscious minds in the evening, just as you humans do. I simply found my mind too distracted to rest."

"Yeah," I said. "Me too."

The sounds of several dinosaurs could be heard making calls in the distance. I wondered vaguely if it was a mating call, or a territorial dispute, or any number of things. I could morph them…But the dinosaurs were still very mysterious to me.

"The last two One ships will crash into the desert beneath the plateau," I commented. "We can't create forest fires there."

"We will have to tap that aquifer," he said. "When we run out of water in the current aquifer."

"Did you just say that we'll cross that bridge when we come to it?" I asked.

"I suppose that that is the human metaphor of equivalent value," he said. "But I prefer the Kelbrid one."

"What's your world like?" I asked.

"It is very beautiful," he said. "Lots of fertile soil, running water, and meat to consume."

"Right…" I said.

"We have built major cities where the swamps used to be," he commented. "And Terrestrial Kelbrid do not use the same travel machines that the Starlords do. Their travel machines are lighter, and have a clear dome on top, to collect moisture and sunlight. Starlord Kelbrid must wear these meat-shaped armor, so as to not alarm alien life. There are solar panels on the interior, so I can gather nutrients and photosynthesize…But I prefer natural sunlight. It 'tastes' better."

"I'm sorry that you guys feel like you have to hide who you are," I commented.

"Perhaps one day," he said. "It will no longer be necessary."

"I hope so," I said. "Where are you guys?"

"You cannot see Keblia's star from here," He said. "The nebula blocks it from view."

"How do you even see?" I wondered. "You don't have eyes."

"I have sense receptors," he huffed in annoyance. "How do you see?"

"My eyes pick up visual stimuli," I said. "My ears audio stimuli, and my nose olfactory stimuli."

"Ah," he said. "But those are limited, are they not? If you only receive visual stimuli through your eyes…Doesn't that mean that you can only observe things that your eyes are pointed at?"

"Yeah," I said. "That's pretty much how eyes work."

"That is bizarre," Muk-Luk said. "I cannot fathom that…Being unable to 'see' everything around me."

"You and the Andalites have that in common," I said. "We're not so different, you know. Everyone's just trying to get by and understand one another in this crazy galaxy."

"Not the One," Muk-Luk said. "It only desires one thing…The consumption and absorption of all life. It wants to be the only living thing in existence."

"Yeah," I said. "Well, the One is a butthead."

"I do not understand that term," Muk-Luk commented.

I considered explaining it, but decided that it would probably be better if I didn't.

"I'm going to go to sleep now," I said. "We've got five days to prep the next crash site for the One. We shouldn't waste them."


	8. Parasaurolophus

Chapter Eight

(I wish George and Martha hadn't tagged along,) Jason said.

We were all in Deinonychus morphs, save Muk-Luk. The trenches were dug, and the fire was blazing quite nicely. The One ship was due to crash at any moment. Oh…And we still hadn't found Melissa.

(We suited up as Deinonychus,) I said. (To them, that's the signal that we're going hunting.)

(Yeah,) Jason said, sounding nervous. (If something happens to them because of this, though…)

It was kind of cute, how much Jason had grown to care about our 'pet' Deinonychuses.

The five of us were crouched down low…Looking for all the world like a real pack of Deinonychus.

We had even caught the scent markers that we were in the territory of a rival pack. It had caused some minor alarm, but the pack itself had clearly not been in this part of the territory for some time.

This piece was set to crash very close to our dome home, so we had chosen to morph Deinonychus, and walk to the site. Muk-Luk had spent the week carving up the trenches.

Our conversation was interrupted by the One ship piece slamming into the ground less than a 100 feet from us. It was a smaller chunk than the others that had crashed, maybe the size of a house, as opposed to the Empire State Building.

Menderash chirped nearby, anxiously, as several of the One infected creatures staggered out. There was another one of the familiar bipedal leonine shapes. Something that looked vaguely like a crab, and four creatures that I couldn't even begin to describe.

The fire hadn't quite reached them yet, so they backed away from the flames. A breeze wafted by and my nose got a blast of One-infected scent.

(Ugh,) I said.

(I know, right,) Jason said. (Something about that smell really disturbs my Deinonychus mind. T-rex too, actually.)

_Wait, what?_ I thought. Something about that was seriously off. But sure enough…George and Martha were looking suddenly very uneasy. As if they were being disturbed at their core.

(Jason,) I said.

(Yeah, Em?) He responded.

(I need to check something…Gotta go do a quick double morph,) I said.

(Why?) Jason asked.

(I don't know…Something's bugging me,) I said. (I need to check on it…Maybe I'm wrong, but I've got to check.)

(We'll hold the fort,) Jason said. (Fire's almost to the One anyway.)

(Why are they just standing there, like that?) Menderash wondered.

It was true…The infected creatures were all just standing there, staring at the flames, they weren't moving, weren't taking any actions to get away…Just standing there.

(Creepy,) I said, turned and darted off into the forest.

I didn't go far. Maybe a few hundred feet. But I had to know…I had to check something…And my Deinonychus morph was not going to give me the answers I needed.

I demorphed as quickly as I could…resuming human form. Then, I focused my mind on the Wolf DNA inside me.

Technically, the wolf morph wasn't a 'pure' wolf. She was 1/16th Husky. And I definitely could feel that doggy joy whenever I assumed the morph. But she was still a wolf. Still a predator. The forest was her element.

I felt my fur and fangs take hold, my canines extending into sharp teeth. My tail sprouting out.

I finished morphing as quickly as I could, and my sense of smell came online. I could smell the burning forest…But I also caught another whiff of the scent of the infected One hosts.

And to my wolf mind…They smelled good.

_That's what I thought,_ I thought.

Being a predator is not easy. It's hard. The things you need to eat, don't particularly want to be eaten, and will fight you tooth and claw to survive. That's why a predator naturally goes for an easy meal. The old. The young. The injured. And the sick.

A sick animal should smell tempting, not disturbing. It should smell like easy prey. Not like something that bothers the predator on a core level.

To my wolf nose, the One smelled like easy prey. Easy dinner. So why then, did the One's scent _disturb_ our predatory dinosaur morphs. It was a mystery that I was certain the answer to was right there in front of me. Just out of reach.

(Muk-Luk,) I heard Jason say in thought-speech. (What are they doing?)

I bounded through the forest to where the others were in Deinonychus morph.

The various One host bodies had linked arms. And their skin was starting to bubble.

(They are accessing the DNA of the collective,) Muk-Luk said. (Calling upon some genetic factor or ability that is not currently present among these contaminated creatures.)

(I don't like the sound of that—,) Jason started to say, when suddenly, their skin burst apart, and every single tainted creature suddenly looked like a giant green blob of goo. They melted together, rapidly forming into a gigantic super-blob.

(What the hell?) Jason said, backing away.

(Oh dear,) Muk-Luk said. (The Kelberiad informs me that last night, the One attacked the aquatic moon of Ixxix Prime. A planet noted for gigantic single-celled organisms called _Forlon Navere_. The _Forlon Navere_ can absorb any sort of vegetative matter and add it to themselves to increase their mass.)

And it was true…The One was sucking up grass, flowers, dead tree branches, and even living trees. Sucking them up and growing…

(It's still vulnerable to the flames, see!) Jason said, as a corner of the blob came close to the fires and visibly burned on contact.

(Vulnerable, yes,) Menderash said. (But one-celled organisms possess no nervous system, they cannot feel pain…And if that thing absorbs enough vegetation then it need not fear the flames…It will simply smother them.)

(The One infected an entire moon,) Jason said (Just to screw with our plan?)

(It is known to be quite petty,) Muk-Luk admitted.

Suddenly, a whip like tentacle launched out of the blob and wrapped around Muk-Luk.

The blob suddenly split down the middle, horizontally, and formed a massive red mouth.

"I will absorb you all," it said, simply. More tentacles lashed out, and one snagged Jason.

(Jason!) I yelled, and lunged at it with my wolf jaws, but the whip was too fast.

Immediately, sensing that their pack-mate was in danger, George and Martha launched themselves at the One. Only to be snatched out of the air by lightning fast whip-like tentacles.

(Emily! Menderash!) Jason yelled, snarling and attempting to use his sickle-claw on his captor. (RUN!)

(I will not abandon you!) Menderash yelled. (Not again!)

The Andalite crouched and launched itself at the One.

(Wait!) I started to yell, but it was too late. The One Blob snatched Menderash out of the air as well.

"I will infect all of you," The One said, a large infection spike forming out of the blob's mass. "Except the Kelbrid…It I shall simply absorb into the mass of this body."

(Emily,) Jason said, his Deinonychus eyes looking directly at my wolf form.

(Run. Don't argue. Just run.)

In that moment, I considered telling Jason. Telling him exactly how I felt…Spilling my guts to him…But before I could, another tentacle launched towards me.

My hesitation vanished…And just as Jason asked…I ran. I ran like the hounds of hell were on my tail.

I ran like a coward.


	9. Love is Incredibly Dense

Chapter Nine

I didn't know where I was running to, there was nowhere to go. As soon as the flames were smothered, the blob would begin infecting all life on this prehistoric gem of a world.

All I could do was delay then inevitable. So I ran. I ran and I ran, and I didn't look back. And I felt miserable.

I had just abandoned the man I loved, to be absorbed by a hideous monster. I had just abandoned two aliens that I considered to be my friends. I had just abandoned two of the most loyal pets I had ever had.

_I should_ _be back there_, I thought. _I should be fighting alongside them. _

Instead, I was running. I had jumped over the trenches that had been our "quarantine", and now I was just running through the forest. Let me tell you, wolves can run all day, and never get tired.

I finally came to a stream, where a trio of Parasaurolophus was casually drinking from, and plucking fruits and plants from the treetops by standing on their hind legs.

I began pacing back and forth on the steam banks. I couldn't believe that I had done that. That I had run away like that. I couldn't believe I had just abandoned my friends like that. I couldn't believe that I had abandoned _Jason_ like that.

I was so ashamed, and terrified.

The Parasaurolophus began making a low noise that described my feelings perfectly.

I wasn't much of a praying person, despite my dad being a pastor. It's not that I didn't believe…It's just that I felt…stupid…Praying for things. Like I thought that God had better things to do than answer my prayers. Which I know my dad would say that that was silly, but it's just how I felt.

(God,) I sobbed, feeling like this time it was worth praying for. (Please help me…I need a miracle.)

I slumped down to the ground. As far as I was concerned, this was it. I didn't even care if I got trapped in the wolf morph. In fact…I very nearly gave into the wolf's instincts right then and there. The depression was a powerful drug.

The only problem was my morph. My morph was not a true wolf. Not 100%. I was part dog. And that little bit of dog in me was not going to let me give in. It wanted me to hope. To fight back. That's what you did for those you love. You fight.

(With what?!) I demanded. (How can I possibly fight the One? I have nothing left!)

At that moment, a large carnivorous dinosaur surged out of the forest on the other side of the stream. It was maybe 20 feet long, and built rather like Jason's tyrannosaur morph…But smaller. It was blood red, and had a large rhino-like horn sticking out of the tip of it's nose.

Its hands were longer than the big rex, compared to it's body, and it had four grasping claws. It charged at the trio of Parasaurolophus.

The lead Parasaurolophus turned and defiantly surged towards the predator. It let out a low call, like someone blowing over a coke bottle indefinitely, and suddenly, sparks ignited.

I leapt to my four feet in shock. A stream of blue and white flames had surged out of the Parasaurolophus's nostrils, striking the hungry predator and burning him. It launched itself into the stream, desperately trying to put out the flames.

(Holy crap!) I said. (They really do that?!)

_There's even a bizarre, totally out-there, theory that I heard once, that the chambers contain flammable chemicals, and that the crest allowed Parasaurolophus to breath fire as a deterrent to predators._ Jason had said._ Like an oversized version of the bombardier beetle._

_ That one's probably not true._

(A dinosaur that breathes fire,) I said, still stunned.

There was a pause as the Parasaurolophus went back to picking up fruit from the nearby trees.

(A dinosaur…) I reveled. (That breath's fire…)

A plan was now forming rapidly in my head, and I quickly began demorphing. Because you can't acquire DNA while you're in morph.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I was running back now. Back towards the blob. Back towards the flames. I could hear their struggles. Their saurian cries of pain.

I burst out of the bushes in human form. Looking at the massive blob that had pinned my friends. In the few minutes that I had been away, Jason and Menderash had switched morphs. I guess they didn't want to die as Deinonychus, because now both of them were in their 'combat morphs'. Not that the Tyrannosaur or the Stegosaur was having any luck escaping the blob's clutches either.

Muk-Luk had about six or seven tentacles grabbing his armor, trying to pry it apart, to get the plant inside.

(Emily!) Jason yelled. (What are you doing back here?! I told you to save yourself!)

"I'd rather save you, Jason," I said. "You didn't actually think that I was going to leave you behind, did you?"

(Was kinda hoping!) Jason said.

"You're not getting rid of me that easily."

I focused my mind on the image of the Parasaurolophus. The changes set in immediately. My body began to bulk up, and my teeth became flat in my mouth. My skin became leathery, and a thick tail sprouted out of my behind. My fingers melted together, becoming something sort of like a hoof.

My toes melted together into powerful feet, while my legs thickened, becoming the powerful hind legs of the Parasaurolophus.

Then my head began to change. My lips hardening into a large flat beak. My hair shrank into my head, and my skull began to stretch. Longer and longer, transforming into the Parasaurolophus crest. It hollowed out, and began to fill with chemical sacks.

(Parasaurolophus?) Jason asked incredulously. (Emily…That's the morph you're planning on saving us with?)

(Yeah,) I said, grinning inwardly.

(You're gonna…Sing the one to death with calls from it's resonance chamber? Or do you have another plan.)

(Something like that,) I said, as the dinosaur's instincts bubbled up underneath my own. It was a bold, confident mind. Parasaurolophus was like a skunk. It didn't need to be afraid, because it's defense mechanism was something that predators didn't like to mess with.

You mess with a skunk once, and you never do it again. You mess with a Parasaurolophus once, and you never do it again.

And like a skunk, the Parasaurolophus's chemical reserves were limited. It didn't have a lot of shots with it's flamethrower, so it used it sparingly. Once I was out, it could take weeks to replenish.

Unless you were an _Estreen_, who could demorph and remorph and restock the Parasaurolophus's chemicals like that.

I charged. Like the bombardier beetle back on earth, the chemicals were stored in two separate chambers. When I needed to use them, I would unleash them at once. They would ignite when exposed to oxygen, and each other, creating a thin stream of flames, that wouldn't last very long. It was a deterrent, not a true weapon.

The flames would actually ignite a few inches away from my nostrils. It only _looked_ like I was breathing fire. I was really blowing my nose with nasty flammable chemical snot.

I sucked in air…And fired. The sound like air over a coke bottle erupted from my nose…As well as the chemical snot. Flames burst into existence and the stream slammed into the One. The blob burned easily, suddenly retreating from the onslaught of intense heat.

(Holy shit!) Jason exclaimed. (Never in a million…No…Sixty-Five million years, did I think that _that _theory was the right one! It seemed so…Far fetched.)

(Like you said,) I pointed out. (You can't tell how dangerous a skunk or a porcupine is from its skeleton alone. The true power of those animals doesn't fossilize. These dinosaurs could be holding secret abilities that we couldn't even conceive of, we can't let the One destroy it.)

(Agreed.)

(Jason, I've only got a few shot's left,) I said. (Where do I need to aim my flames?)

(Muk-Luk,) Jason said instantly. (Get some back-up heat from his plasma blaster.)

I turned towards the tentacles binding the mechanical suit containing the alien plant, and fired. Streams of blueish-white flames ignited and cut through the gooey limbs that were binding him.

(I'm out,) I said, as the flames dissipated. My chemical reserves had been exhausted.

(I am not,) Muk-Luk said. His hands morphed into the plasma blasters, and began firing upon the green blob.

I was demorphing as quickly as I could, as Muk-Luk freed Jason and Menderash. George and Martha let out a scream of pain as infection spears stabbed at their shoulders.

And then I was remorphing. Growing. I especially focused on the feeling of the chemical chambers in the dinosaur's crest. I wanted them _full. _They were among the first things to reform.

As quickly as I was able, I was a Parasaurolophus again, and flames were igniting, incinerating the green blob that was the One. And Muk-Luk fired again and again. Launching blasts of white-hot plasma upon the diseased thing.

Jason was stomping at the gooey blob, and Menderash was hacking at it with his stegosaurus tail. Not as effective as Muk-Luk or myself…But they were slowing it down.

As soon as my chemical reserves were exhausted again, I once more demorphed and remorphed—Which was in and of itself, a different kind of exhausting—but I couldn't stop. We began to herd the One blob into the fire. It hissed and lashed out at us, almost half-heartedly. I think that the One understood that it was beaten, and wasn't even putting up a fight. Which meant that it was probably preparing for our next encounter. Joy.

When the last of the blob sizzled out, I began to demorph.

(Wait,) Jason said, turning his head towards George and Martha. (We've gotta…Take care of these two. They were infected. We all got stabbed…But Menderash and I can morph away from the disease…They can't…We have to…Put them out of their misery…)

(Curious,) Muk-Luk said. (They seem to still be…Themselves. Typically infection sets in much faster. Particularly with new DNA…The one enjoys breaking down its victims…)

And then my little grey cells buzzed, and I finally understood yet another mystery.

"Actually," I said, reaching over and gingerly petting George and Martha, who nuzzled my hands like a pair of dogs. "We don't have to kill them. They're going to be just fine."

(They got stabbed by the infection spear,) Jason said. (We saw them…They got pumped full of that virus.)

"Which probably hurt like hell," I said. "But you said you both got stabbed too…How do you feel?"

(Um…Okay, I guess?) Jason said, sounding confused.

"Haven't you figured it out, yet?" I asked.

(Em,) Jason said. (You know I'm no good at mysteries. I can't spot a clue if it's beating me over the head.)

"The dinosaurs don't get sick here," I said. "Disease is an utterly foreign concept. That's why it bugs our predator morphs. Typically, a predator goes for a sick animal…Because it's weak. Because it's easy prey. But there ARE no sick animals here. Not one. Every single animal on Jurassic Planet is completely immune to all disease. The One included. Our Quarantines have been unnecessary. The One could never take this planet, because it cannot infect any of the creatures here."

(How?) Jason asked, dumbfounded.

"The reason we came here," I said. "The Pemalite cure. It's everywhere. All around us. Maybe it's in the water, or the food, or something else, I don't know…But the Pemalite cure is in every living thing on this planet. Nothing can get sick on this world. So the predators are uneasy with sick animals…Because they don't understand what it is that they are smelling…because they have never known disease. Not since this planet was terraformed anyway. Long enough for disease to have been wiped from their genetic memories, anyway."

(We…We have found what we came for?) Menderash said in awe.

"Not yet," I commented, as Jason and Menderash started demorphing. "We found the proof-of-concept. That there is a cure-all for disease here. The animals don't get sick, ever. But we still need the source. Or, at least a way to extract the cure. We haven't found the cure. But we know it's real now. We know it exists."

"That's something, though," Jason said, examining the Deinonychuses closely, who snapped at him in annoyance. The Deinonychuses were subservient to him in the pack order, but they did not like being stared at.

(It is almost unbelievable,) Muk-Luk said. (Nothing…Not one form of life that we have encountered is immune to the Unan Virus. But these creatures…They truly are…)

"Today has been a good day," I said.

Jason suddenly embraced me in a surprise hug that made my heart flitter.

"I thought I lost you today…Thanks for reminding me how badass you are."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Emily is right," Erica said. After having examined more than a dozen DNA patterns from around the dome.

"The Pemalite cure-all is present," she said. "In every form of life. In miniscule amounts…But it doesn't need to be much. The compound was designed to work with a species natural immune system. And it's not like there aren't pathogens around here…There's plenty. But they are impotent. This planet is completely disease-free."

"We can't say that for certain," Jason said. "Our sample is to small. But it does stand to reason."

"What about us?" Menderash asked. "We have been consuming plants and animals for food for several weeks now. Is the compound in our systems?"

Erica turned her gaze upon the three of us.

After a moment, she responded.

"No," she said, slightly disappointed. "Whatever the source of the cure is, it hasn't passed into you. At least not through the food you've been eating. It must be introduced into the ecosystem a different way."

"It's in our morphs though." Jason commented. "The tyrannosaur was completely immune."

"That would indicate that the cure is a part of this ecosystem on a genetic level," Erica said. "I'm not even sure how that's possible."

"Whoever built this place is crazy-smart, though," I said. "Because it is incredible."

"All right," Jason said. "We've had an exciting day. And there's still three more ship pieces that will be coming down in the next month that we need to figure out how to deal with. It's clear that we can never repeat our tactics with the One…It learns to fast…But…Now that we know that local life is not in danger of infection…I think that gives us an edge."

"First, things first, though," I said. "I am hungry. Let's have some dinner."

I nodded, and went inside the dome to wash up.

"Exciting day," Erica said behind me as I washed my hands. I jumped in surprise.

"Jeeze" I said. "You scared the crap out of me, Erica. Don't sneak up on a girl."

"You gonna tell Jason about your feelings for him?"

I bristled.

"Probably not," I said. "Ever."

"Emily," she said, sounding annoyed.

"What?" I said. "What do you want from me? Life has become WAY too distracting. We've got dinosaurs…Living dinosaurs, Jason's favorite thing…And he can morph them. We've got evil diseases that can think and try to kill you or Borg you. And oh yeah…Jason owns a freaking planet. That's a big deal, that I don't think has hit him yet."

"Emily," Erica said, her pitch now slightly higher.

"No," I said. "He has enough on his plate. I can't tell him. I can't tell him that I followed him halfway across the galaxy…Left my family behind to go on his fool's errand with you, because I was in love with him. That I tried to tell him the day we met Estreen, but couldn't because of what came in the wake of that. That I've been so desperately, madly in love with my best friend, that sometimes I can't think straight? Is that what you want me to tell him?"

"Yes," Erica said, grinning. "That is exactly what I wanted you to tell him. And you just did."

Her hologram shimmered and suddenly Jason was standing there next to her, his face in utter shock.

My heart stopped beating, and time froze around me.

"You…" He said, still stunned. "You love me?"

"Yes," I confessed, defeated. "I'm just…I couldn't…You're my best…I don't."

Jason suddenly stepped forward, grabbed me, and kissed me. My world came crashing down around me.

It wasn't my first kiss. And it definitely wasn't the best kiss I'd ever had…But at the same time…My heart was going nuts because it was _Jason _kissing me. After all this time, _Jason was finally kissing me._

He broke the kiss and stepped back in surprise, his arms still around me.

"Wow," I said. "You are a lousy kisser."

"Not what I expected to hear," I he said, suddenly looking self-conscious.

"Just means you need practice," I said grabbing him and kissing him again.

"I could get used to that," he admitted, after I broke the kiss again.

"So…" I said, realizing that whatever it was that I had been afraid to tell him was utterly pointless now. "You feel the same way?"

Somewhere, in the irrational part of my brain, I had never, never once considered that Jason might feel the same way about me. Not once. It was bizarre when I analyzed it later. Even obvious…But my mind kept thinking that he would laugh in my face, or be upset that I had somehow ruined our friendship.

"Emiline Jasmine Wu," He said, slowly saying my whole name. "Do you _really_ not know?"

"Know?" I said, suddenly scared again.

"I have been in love with you," he said. "Since you broke my nose."

I blinked at that.

"We were seven!" I said.

"And I knew," Jason said. "I knew it even then. I went home from that picnic, and told my parents that I was gonna marry you. They thought it was cute. Then my dad told me that if I told you that, it might scare you away. Well that was the most terrifying thing that my seven-year old mind could conceive of. So the next day, when I marched up to you…Instead of telling you that I was going to marry you, like seven-year old me had originally planned. I said I was gonna be your best friend. I figured that wasn't nearly so scary."

I processed this information, in shock.

"You…Never said anything?" I said. "Even when I was dating all those boys?"

"Guess, ultimately," Jason said. "When it came down to it, I was more afraid of losing you than anything else. If you were happy than I was."

"But I wasn't," I confessed. "Because they weren't you. Jason Michael Grant…Congratulations. You have me now. I'm all yours."

He kissed me again.

"And it's ABOUT DAMN TIME," Erica said. "Do you two have any idea…Any notion of what this has been like from the outside? You two were so OBVIOUSLY into each other, but both were too scared to say or do anything to ruin your friendship? I just wanted to scream at you."

"Well," Jason said. "I guess….Our friendship is technically ruined now."

"This is better," I said.

I kissed my new boyfriend again, and my heart sang.


	10. Author's Notes

_Author's notes. _

_I do not personally ascribe to the theory that Parasaurolophus could breath fire. It's a rather ridiculous theory, when examined carefully. But, once upon a time, so was the idea that dinosaurs became birds, or were warm blooded. Science is always changing. Always learning and growing. Just look at the recent discoveries about Spinosaurus from just a few months ago. _

_And Dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures are only known from their bones. Bones don't tell the whole story. It's like trying to figure out what a building looks like from its frame alone. So…I chose to use an unusual and unlikely theory in this book, to illustrate the fact, that as much as we know, we don't know nearly enough. Paleontology is and always will be guesswork. _

_I hope, that you were okay with my creative license with the Parasaurolophus (and with all creative licenses I take in the future. And I hope you enjoyed this fanfic. _

_Stay tuned for Dinomorphs #3, coming soon. _


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